Help Us Improve: Your Role in This Class

In this class, we believe in strong feedback! We need your comments. In each module, you'll see a place to submit your feedback and comments. If you spot any mistakes or potential fixes, or have ideas or suggestions, please let us know!

Please be as specific as possible in your comments and feedback. If you just say "I disagreed with the way you portrayed _____", then it is not always easy to understand the problem. It is extremely helpful if you say "In video 1.1 at 0:45 you mention that _____, but it would be more accurate to say ____ ".

Watching Videos

When you watch the videos, you have the option to adjust the playback speed. Previous participants suggested pointing this out for those who prefer a faster or slower pace.

Expectations

This video-based course is designed to provide a foundational introduction to STPA. It serves as a prerequisite for more advanced courses that involve hands-on exercises, real projects, and individual reviews by a facilitator. The course takes approximately 20 hours to complete, compared to the full STPA certificate program, which spans 40 to 50 hours plus additional activities and projects.

Slides

Below the videos, you'll see links to download the slides. That's useful when you're completing the activities and you want to quickly refer back to something without watching the whole video again. The slides are for your own personal use and may not be distributed outside of the class without permission. You may not share the slides with generative artificial intelligence or large language models (LLMs).

If you want to give a presentation about STPA and want to use a handful of slides from the class, please just ask. It is usually not a problem.

Pace of the course

The course is self-paced, so set your own schedule. But you must make a time commitment to finish. Don't walk away for too long, or you will forget what you've seen. Most participants say the lessons really 'click' and solidify if you finish the course quickly and start applying your new skills right away. Participants who spread the lessons over many weeks reported having more trouble remembering everything that was covered. The same is true for those who were not able to use the techniques soon after the course.

If you're in a rush, you could complete this course in about 3 days:

Monday:

• Minimum time commitment: 8 hours
• Complete Module 1: Modern System Safety Fundamentals
• Complete Module 2: Human Interaction Fundamentals

Tuesday:

• Minimum time commitment: 8 hours
• Complete Module 3: Systems Theory and STAMP
• Complete Module 4: STPA Introduction

Wednesday:

• Estimated time commitment: 8 hours
• Complete Module 5: STPA Example
• Complete Module 6: STPA Exercise
• Complete Module 7: Lessons Learned in Practice

These time estimates do not include the required reading or the "take-home" assignments and activities. If possible, plan to spend ~40 hours to get the most benefit from this course.